Just a quick post to say – whoever thought crossing the Peak District needs their head examined. Well I made it – but have very little battery, So I will update in due course – there is a lot to tell …. before I forget.

I feel I am able to talk about yesterday now! It was such a tough day. I was on the road by 6:30am, mainly as when I found all the campsite facilities used a coded keypad, £12.50 sounded a bit steep for a plot and a tap. It was marginally better than wildcamping. But with a well used path through the woods right behind the tent it felt like a wild camp, and with wildcamping, you never sleep well. So I woke really early and decided to move on. Also, as there were no washing up facilities, I decided to grab breakfast later. Washing up after the porridge in cold water under a tap didn’t appeal. The first stop was Skellingthorpe Lake, it was breathtaking in the still of the morning.

The first part of the day was excellent, lots of good cycle routes, quite a few on old railway lines, and not too many hills. I think I became over confident, and forgetting I had only had the specialist “banana and mini fanta” breakfast (shush – it’s adopted by all international athletes). Instead of my big bowl of porridge, banana chips and honey. I also cycled about 30 km before breakfast, waiting for a well positioned bench, and did I find a beauty. In terms of view, the casting and being in the shade.

The quiet route continued with tracks and roads, although my route planner seemed to have picked some private roads which left me working out alternatives. On a seemingly very remote old railway bridge crossing the River Trent, there was loads of good, and not so good (but with good heart) graffiti on the rusting sides of the bridge. See Instagram for more.

I’m not sure when the fun stopped! I’d had a nagging mechanical issue where when using the big front chainwheel, the chain would go into the spokes on the big sprocket at the rear. It was fine in the small chainwheel, so by careful shifting I was able to avoid a big issue. When it did drop into the gap, it lifted up relatively easily back onto the sprocket despite the panniers etc. However as the hills started this problem, requiring careful changing started to cause problems. I knew if it locked up on a steep climb it could be disaster, but equally stopping to fix it would probably make it worse (dérailleurs are a bit of a mystery without instructions). This meant that every hill was climbed in less than the highest gear, and I was too scared to get out of the saddle for short steep climbs. It came off a couple of times but easily solved. Anyway, it wasn’t until I reached Palerton that I could see how far I had climbed, with great views over the M1, to which I had to now descend.

Well the climbing carried on, up a lot, down a bit – over and over (I wish I’d had two tins of mini fanta!). Although I had enough water, and was catching up on the food with cheese sandwiches – it was tough. Did I mention the heat! Every hill got harder, on the start of one hill a lady was cooling her baby under a tree (I don’t know how to describe this better), she offered to fill my drinks bottle and said the hill I was heading up was gruelling (she was a touring cyclist, and said it was a 20 minute climb on an unloaded road bike). I took her advice, and headed up a quieter, more gentle shady route – unfortunately it wasn’t the way I wanted to go! So I had to come back, greet her again and cycle until I was just out of sight and start walking (for future reference avoid the road from Holymoorside up the Loads Road!). The other problem I have is my navigation device “Beeline” is great, most of the time. Sometimes it decides to give you a quiet alternative without knowing its up a massive hill. So I started to ignore it, and decide on whether to take the busy roads myself. I took the A619 down into Chatsworth (Baslow) which was excellent and quiet, it saw me hitting 55km/hr, nothing could pass me.

This is where my troubles started, after a stop at the Chatsworth House, Public Toilets (5* trip advisor), I started pedalling and the chain went into the wheel and jammed solid. I was there a good hour, prodding, levering, pilering and swearing – it wouldn’t shift. The derailleur bent alarmingly, and I didn’t think taking the wheel out would help. However, as soon as I lifted the wheel (the last option before breaking and shortening the chain into a single gear) the chain flopped free. I was back in the game!

Still more hills, and more pushing (I still don’t dare to mess with the derailleur) got me to Monsal Head. And to Park House campsite, a glorious old school campsite, quiet with superb views and a pub (Monsal Head Hotel) up the road – perfect. Except the pub, would let me plug my phone in, apparently I could blow all the electrics for the whole place!!!!!

What a day, over 11 hours and 100km all very hard won. Its what makes cycle touring so good, the highs of the highs, and the lows of the lows – but all managable (but I do get emotional a lot on the highs!).